Annotation:Munlochy Bridge
X:1 T:Munlochy Bridge M:4/4 L:1/8 B:William Ross - Ross's Collection of Pipe Music (1869, No. 159) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion R:Strathspey K:G a|e>dB>A B<GG>B|d>ed>B d2 da|e>dB>A B<GG>e|g>ef>d e2 e:|| f|d>eg>e a>ee.f|d>ed>B d2 d>e|d>eg>e a>ee>f|g>ef>d e2 e>f| d>eg>e a>ee>f|d>ed>B d2 da|e>dB>A B<GG>e|g>ef>d e2 e:|]
MUNLOCHY BRIDGE. AKA - "Munlochie Bridge." AKA and see "Gun d' dhiùlt am bodach fodar dhomh" (The old man refused me fodder), "I'll Hap Ye in My Plaidie," "Sir Harry’s Welcome Home." Scottish, Canadian; Strathspey. Canada; Cape Breton, Prince Edward Island. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Perlman): AAB (Cranford/Holland, Martin). Munlochy is a village near Inverness, Scotland, located on the Black Isle, the name of a peninsula[1] in north east Scotland between the Beauly Firth to the south and Cromarty Firth to the north. It is called 'black', according to local lore, because it remains relatively clear of snow.
The melody has been employed for popular songs (in Gaelic and English), along with fiddle and pipe tunes in various iterations. Originally Scottish, it was imported to Maritime Canada. Gaelic words to the melody are given by John Shaw in liner notes to Topic 12TS354, obtained from Cape Breton storyteller Joe Neil MacNeil. Perlman (1996) notes the tune is widely played among fiddlers throughout North-East Kings County, Prince Edward Island, Canada. Christine Martin (2002) prints a song version under the Gaelic title "Gun d' dhiùlt am bodach fodar dhomh" (The old man refused me fodder), and the melody is also the vehicle for the puirt a beul songs "Dh'ith na coinna maragan" and "Tha m'inntinn raoir a-nochd 's a-raoir." A variant is also used for the song "Leith Wynd" or "Come Hap Me with Thy Petticoat." Cape Breton fiddler, composer, publisher and editor (and lighthouse-keeper) Paul Stewart Cranford finds the strathspey "Sir John Malcolm" (in Bremner, Kerr's Fourth Collection) to be a related tune, particularly the first strain of "Sir John Malcolm" which closely resembles the second part of "Munlochy Bridge." The melody appears in many pipe collections as well as fiddle volumes, and in fact the first appearance of the "Munlochy Bridge" title attached to the tune was in Queen Victoria's piper William Ross's 1885 collection.
See also the related Irish slide (12/8) "She didn't Dance and Dance" and, perhaps more distantly, the slip jig (9/8) "My Mind Will Never be Easy."
- ↑ Although a peninsula, the Black Isle looks to be an island from some sea approaches.